Earlier in the year I had a rat problem, and was very diligent on putting out rat bait. The amount they got through before it stopped 'disappearing' was quite shocking. However, it did the trick, and the chicken food also stopped 'disappearing' so rapidly.

Just lately though, the food consumption has gone up again, and there's been a steady increase in scurrying noises while shutting the chooks in. A couple of nights ago, I spotted one briefly in the torch light, but apart from it's size, and rodent shape, I couldn't tell much about it. Small rat? Tonight, there was rustling pretty much whichever way I shone the torch, and I managed to see at least three different beasties, from baby rat size to small rat size, and all with relatively short furry tails . . .

Googling reveals the poison to be nasty to all sorts of things, in several ways, so I might well try trapping, although there hasn't been so much activity now it's colder.

I'm not too keen on snap traps, but I can't find the plans for a home made, mostly wooden, humane tunnel trap, that I have seen before, and I can't remember how the one way entrance works or if/how the door is tripped.

Two local youngsters called up last week to find out if I would allow them to shoot rats,they had one before leaving,called back later on and had another 10 between them,one had an infra red light sight of some sorts,and worked a treat.

Chipmunks are - relatively speaking - restrained in their breeding habits. They breed twice a year and have 4 or 5 young in each litter. Generally live 3 years in the wild.

Deer mice are more active in the population increase stakes. They have anywhere from 1 to 11 pups but usually 4 to 6 in a litter. They breed every 3 to 4 weeks in warm weather. They can get pregnant while nursing the current litter. The young can reproduce at 35 days but more commonly at 49 days. Mortality of young is high, and adults seldom live more than 1-2 1/2 years.

Voles live a short (3 to 6 months on average) but sexy life. Voles reach sexual maturity at 1 month, have a 3 week pregnancy, and anywhere from 5 to 10 litters a year. With 5 to 10 young per litter that's a low of 25 to a high of 100 young per vole per year.Voles are eaten by raccoons, owls, hawks, falcons, coyotes, foxes, snakes, weasels, cats and dogs.

Two local youngsters called up last week to find out if I would allow them to shoot rats,they had one before leaving,called back later on and had another 10 between them,one had an infra red light sight of some sorts,and worked a treat.

passive ir is ok but active is awesome( if you spend a lot on it) ,the cobra i got off brownbear is an amazing bit of kit for shooting or for observing ,x4 mag, deep and widish field of view and with the pinhole cover on in will work in dayliight as well.

Chipmunks are - relatively speaking - restrained in their breeding habits. They breed twice a year and have 4 or 5 young in each litter. Generally live 3 years in the wild.

Deer mice are more active in the population increase stakes. They have anywhere from 1 to 11 pups but usually 4 to 6 in a litter. They breed every 3 to 4 weeks in warm weather. They can get pregnant while nursing the current litter. The young can reproduce at 35 days but more commonly at 49 days. Mortality of young is high, and adults seldom live more than 1-2 1/2 years.

Voles live a short (3 to 6 months on average) but sexy life. Voles reach sexual maturity at 1 month, have a 3 week pregnancy, and anywhere from 5 to 10 litters a year. With 5 to 10 young per litter that's a low of 25 to a high of 100 young per vole per year.Voles are eaten by raccoons, owls, hawks, falcons, coyotes, foxes, snakes, weasels, cats and dogs.

So, I've been looking for multicatch rat traps online, and discovered that I already have the wherewithal to make a bucket trap, I just need daylight to find everything and put it all together.

Most of the bucket traps have some kind of seesaw involved, and I remembered that there was a seesaw involved in the tunnel trap too, and putting 'seesaw tunnel rat trap' into google brings up the type I was looking for when I posted before, so I will have a go at making one of those too.

Crispy!
At the Yorkshire Show last summer, the game/hunting set were selling a gas-cartridge-powered rat thumper. I forget all details aoart from the duagram daying rat approaches, sticks head up tube to sniff bait, and KAPOW!